POTD: Scary Tree

Of all the trees that grow so fair Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun

Than Oak, and Ash and Thorn.

- - - -Rudyard Kipling "A Tree Song"

1. Camera+ version

(taken with HDR Fusion, edited in Camera+ with Clarity filter)

2. Monochrome version

(Camera+ version converted into a monochrome in Monochromia app)

3. Simply HDR version

(Camera+ version re-processed as HDR in Simply HDR app)

4. Scary1 – Halloween Special

(HDR Fusion pic edited in FX Photo Studio and Spooky Pic apps)

5. Scary2 – Halloween Special

(HDR Fusion pic edited in FX Photo Studio and Color Blast! Apps)

Reader’s Contributions:

6. Halloween Costume (submitted by Carolyne Salmen)

7. Name on the Beach (submitted by Stephen Grainger)

This picture reminded me of a quote I had read:

I shall go the way of the open sea,

To the lands I knew before you came,

And the cool ocean breezes shall blow from me

The memory of your name.

- - - -Laurence Hope

Friday’s Voting Results

Number 1 was liked by the majority. Out of Reader’s Contributions, both won equal number of votes.

Announcement

This Friday will be Reader’s Day! I won’t be submitting any pictures of my own, the edition will be exclusively using Reader’s Contributions. Limit is 5 Readers with 1 contribution each. So, please submit your entries now. Please note that this is over and above the daily Reader’s contributions feed, which will continue as usual.

Photo Toaster Jr. now available (for Free)

Photo Toaster is one of my most frequently used apps. Their makers, East Coast Pixels, have released a lite version of the app called, Photo Toaster Jr. It will be good app to try before you buy the main version, which I think you surely will it you are serious on iPhoneography.

FingerFoto available for Free

FingerFoto is a multi photo collage editor, from the makers of another collage maker app PhotoShake!

ClassicBooth and IncrediBooth both available for Free

Both of the well know photo booth apps are now available for FREE for a limited time. Get them if you like the booth type photos and filters.

POTD: Sunset Sky + 2 Reader's Contributions

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

This picture was taken at Hyde Park last Sunday, around 6 ish in the evening. If it were not for my new super zoom camera, I might not have got the close up effect that you see in the picture.

1. Original with Basic edits on iPhone

(taken with my new Sony HX100V zoom camera, edited for a bit of saturation and white balance in Snapseed app)

2. Pocket Monet version

(edited in Pocket Monet app)

3. Paint It! Now version

 (edited in Paint It! Now app)

4. Autopainter version

(edited in Autopainter app)

5. Dazed version

(edited in Photo Toaster app)

Reader’s Contribution(s)

Today we have two readers contributing to our POTD.

6. ICC

First contribution is from my colleague, Loretta Tsui.

(taken with my HTC Incredible S)

In her own words:

“That’s the International Commerce Centre, it has 118 floors, it’s the world’s fourth tallest building by height, second tallest building by floors, and the tallest building in Hong Kong with the world’s highest swimming pool and bar is on the top floor.  BTW this is the view from our office.”

7. Halloween Cakes

Second set of contribution is from my other colleague and a regular contributor, Carolyne Salmen.

 

(both pictures taken with Blackberry)

Yesterday’s Polling Results:

Number 1 (Flame of Joy) was liked most, but by a small margin to the runner up Number 4 (Vibrant Flame)

  

POTD: Lovely lights of flame + Reader's Contribution

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends -
it gives a lovely light.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay "First Fig"

All these pictures were taken last night while celebrating a peaceful, cracker less Diwali at home. Wish you all (and your families) a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!

1. A flame of joy

(taken with Nikon D5100 and Raynox 150 close up filter)

2. Colourless Flames

(taken with Nikon D5100, Night vision mode)

3. Light of Prayer

(taken with Camera+ on iPhone and edited in Big Lens app – Gray BG filter)

4. Vibrant Flame

(taken with Nikon D5100 + Raynox 150 close up filter)

Reader’s Contribution

Today’s contribution comes from my colleague and friend, Carolyne Salmen.

5. St. Paul’s Nail

May 2011 saw the unveiling of Gavin Turk’s first ever permanent public sculpture, ‘Nail’, in the heart of the City of London.

Turk, one of Britain’s most celebrated sculptors, was commissioned by Land Securities to create a striking new art installation that will be set into the pavement at the main entrance to the One New Change City mall. 

Resting at a slight 5° angle, the 12-metre high, cast bronze sculpture of a nail sits between the gleam of 21^st century glass and the historic facade of St Paul’s Cathedral. ‘Nail’ represents Turk’s interpretation of the dialogue between these two monuments, and the extraordinary changes that have taken place over the centuries in an area rich in history and heritage.

(Source: http://www.onenewchange.com/the-nail.aspx)

Yesterday’s voting result

Number 2 (Basic Edits on iPhone apps) was the clear winner by double the margin to the runner up Number 1 (Original)

Pencil Sketch! Free

This app converts a photo from the album or taken with the in-app camera shortcut into a pencil sketch.

Color Blastt! on Sale

Color Blast! Is a good selective colouring app and is currently on sale at £0.69. I personally prefer iQuikSplash to this app, but it has some unique features like turning the background into a sepia or a vintage.

Rainy Daze - a new iPhoneography app on sale

JixiPix Software, the creators of some other famous and well received apps like Dramatic Black and White, Simply HDR, and Vintage Scene, have released a new app called Rainy Daze. The app has three customizable styles – Romantic Rain, Rain Shower, and Vintage Rain. I liked the effects produced by this app and will recommend buying at its current sale price of £0.69.

POTD: A Sunny Autumn

I had been to Greenwich park this weekend and took quite a few pictures showing autumn in its full glory. I am sharing two of these with you today, along with some “iPhone app converted” ones.

1. Greenwich1 – taken with iPhone

I took this pic with HDR Fusion app – it takes two shots of the scene – one with a dark exposure and the other with a light exposure and then fuses them together.

2. Greenwich1 – Basic edits

I found the original pic to be slightly dull. So, I edited for a bit of saturation, ambiance and vibrancy in Camera+ app first and then Snapseed for finishing touches.

3. Greenwich1 – Rainy Daze

I got a new app today called Rainy Daze. Simply put, it adds rainy effects to photos. Although my photo was taken in very bright conditions, this app did a good job of rendering that rainy feel to it.

4. Greenwich1 – Monochrome

The scene had some drama element to it, and so I tried converting it into a Monochrome using Monochromia app.

5. Greenwich1 – PicFX

PicFX is another excellent app which always surprises me. In this picture, I used their Frame1 filter and I liked the effects it added – especially a Sun like object at the back of the silhouettes on the horizon and the bright shiny light on the path to the right.

6. Greenwich2 – Camera+

I took this picture at the same spot but slightly different time of the day and it came out dark with clearly outlined silhouettes. I just edited it a bit for vibrancy and that’s all.

Yesterday’s poll results

There was a tie between 1^st (Original) and 6^th (Monochrome).

POTD: Teardrop on a Rose

A Teardrop on a Rose

--------------------

Written and recorded by Hank Williams (SR)

While strolling thru a lovely garden

As day was drawing to a close...

My eyes be-held a tragic story

I saw a teardrop on a rose.

It should have been a tear of gladness

But deep inside the sorrow shows

A trusting heart had just been broken

I saw a teardrop on a rose.

A sobbing tear that follows parting

Holds all the pain that sorrow knows

A false goodbye a life is shattered

There lies a story on a rose.

The tear will dry the rose will wither

When spring and winter comes and goes

I loved, I lost, my story ended

With just a teardrop on a rose.

1. Rose1 - SLR Pic

 

(taken with Nikon D5100)

2. Rose1 – Converted into a sketch in Pocket Monet iPhone app

3. Rose2 – iPhone Pic (Big Lens)

(taken with iPhone using Big Lens app – I found the effects produced by this app simply amazing – almost SLR like!)

4. Rose3 – SLR Pic edited with Snapseed iPhone app

(taken with Nikon D5100 and edited for saturation and sharpness in Snapseed)

5. Rose3 – Van Gogh version

(taken with Nikon D5100 and converted into a painting in Autopainter app – Van Gogh filter)

6. Rose3 – Monochrome version

(taken with Nikon D5100 and converted into a monochrome in Monochromia app) 

Discounted iPhoneography apps today

Camera Sharp (down from £1.49 to £0.69)
Similar to Quickpix, it is a no frills, point and click camera replacement app. It touts itself to be fastest camera app in the app store and has some good reviews from iphoneography, appadvice, and other notable sites.

Photo Manager Pro (down from £1.99 to £0.69)
Photo organiser app.

Free iPhoneography apps today

Mad lips
A fun app to camouflage any video clip over a still photo. You can do some wacky stuff life make animals talk in your voice and with your lips...

Puzzle You
Convert any of your photo into a jigsaw puzzle.

Roll!
Convert your photos into animated GIFs

Spook It!
Make your pictures spooky!

iPicture Frames
Add frames to your photos.

POTD: Thames Flood Barrier - Last one

These two photographs mark the conclusion of Thames Flood Barrier series. I have got some good pictures over the weekend, which I will start sharing with you from tomorrow.

(taken with iPhone and edited in Camera+ app)

Free noteworthy iPhoneography apps today

Pocket Monet (down from 0.69 to FREE)
From the creator of another excellent retro app Lumiere.

Mirror-rorriM (down from 0.69 to FREE)
To mirror half part of your photo.

Dermandar Panorama (down from 1.49 to FREE)
One of the very popular panorama photo capture apps is now free for a limited time. So, get it fast if you like taking panoramic photographs on your iPhone.

iPhoneography apps by features

Over the last few months, I have accumulated hundreds of iPhone apps for photography. And honestly, it is often confusing to remember which app has which particular features. Every time I have to edit a photograph, I am struggling to determine which is the best app to do the job. And also most of them offer the same features in a slightly different way to each other. So, now I am starting to build a catalog of features that I normally want for my photo editing and list down the corresponding apps that support them. This is just a nascent piece of work at the moment, so keep coming back to see regular updates on the page.

• Capturing Photos
Below is a list of apps that I prefer to use depending on the type of photo I am planning to click.
• Normal mode
Native camera app
Camera+
King Camera
• Retro
Lumiere
Retro Camera Plus
• Monochrome
1. Streetmate
2. B&W Camera
• HDR
1. Pro HDR
2. HDR Fusion
• Panoramas
1. Autostitch Panorama
2. DerManDar Panorama
3. Photosynth
• Shutter Control
1. SlowShutter Cam
• Stealth
1. nofinder
• Quick
1. QuickPix
2. BurstMode
• Crop an image
1. Camera+
This app is my first choice when I have the need to crop an image. It offers cropping in various dimensions like square golden ratio, 4:3,16:9, and freeform. 
2. Squaready
3. Iris Photo Suite
4. Photoforge2
5. PS Express
6. FX Photo Studio
• Increase/Decrease Sharpness
1. PS Express
2. Iris Photo Suite
3. Snapseed
• Adjust Brightness/Contrast
1. Snapseed (allows selective adjustment)
2. PS Express
3. Iris Photo Suite
• Increase/Decrease Ambiance
1. Snapseed
• Change White Balance
1. Snapseed
• Increase/Decrease Saturation
1. Snapseed
2. PS Express
3. Iris Photo Suite
• Convert into a monochrome
1. Monochromia
2. Noir Photo
3. Snapseed
4. Camera+
5. FX Photo Studio
• Selective Colouring
1. iQuikColor Splash (allows selecting up to 4 colors at a time)
2. Iris Photo Suite
3. Color Splash
• Convert into HDR
1. Simply HDR
2. Dynamic Light
3. Photo Toaster
4. Camera+
• Adding Depth of Field
1. iQuikDOF
2. Big Lens
• Convert into an Artistic image

1. ToonPaint
2. MobileMonet
3. AutoPainter
4. Autopainter II
5. Paint It! Now
6. Art Camera
7. Artographo
8. Sketch Me!

Free noteworthy iPhoneography apps - 23 October 2011

- WoW camera
This is quite a good camera replacement app that also tries to be in "all in one" category. It allows applying filters, captions and even create some basic collages. I have used the app a couple of times and had some pretty decent experience with it. At its current free sale price, it's worth trying on.

Discounted noteworthy iPhoneography apps today - 23 October 2011

Osnap! Ultimate Time Lapse (down from £1.99 to £0.69)
Good one for those who are interested in time lapse videos. This app has a strong rating of 4/5 on 148apps.com. It is a bit resource hungry app. Also try its lite version for free before buying at the discounted price.

iPhoneography Apps Review - Big Lens

Big Lens is one of the best iPhone photography apps that I have purchased. It is a simple to use, yet very powerful, app. You can either take a photo from the in app camera shortcut or even import your own photo from the camera roll / photo album. You get six command options at the bottom to edit your photo. Aperture option allows selecting a lens from f3.5 to f1.8 - lowest number (largest aperture) gives a very focused macro type effect. The blurred background looks very natural and very much like what you would have got on a SLR pic. You can select from a circle or linear type focus and the app also provides around 9 different types o lenses to choose from. There are 19 filters to change the look and feel of your photo.

Overall I am very impressed with this app and will definitely recommend buying it.

My Favourite iPhone apps - By Category

I was an early adopter of iPod touch + iPhone. Earlier on I mostly used the phone just for checking mails and casual net surfing (besides taking and making phone calls!). But now my spectrum of use has widened to the ever expanding list of fantastic apps. I am just amazed on g


how the apps thing has just taken off with the world. It is almost replacing the need for websites at a fast pace. I am sure many a companies might now be considering launching a smartphone app before they even start their online web page. I was just reading yesterday (in the preview of his latest biography) that Steve Jobs himself was first reluctant to open the app store, but he too was shocked on the way it has influenced our world now. Kudos to the visionary entrepreneur who brought this wonder to the world. Salute.

I am almost an addict of my iPhone now. Most of my non-office, waking hours are spent on this wonderful, other worldly gadget. Below is a catalog of the apps that I like the most to spend my time on.

News

	Bloomberg
	CNBC RT
	BBC Worldwide
	NY Times
	Huffington Post
	Engadget
	Times
	Metro

Native apps
- Mail
- Safari
- Notes
- Reminder List

iPhoneography
- Camera+
- HDR Fusion
- Lumiere
- nofinder
- FX Photo Studio
- PS Express
- Snapseed
- Iris

Social Networking
- Facebook
- Flickr

App Discovery
- App Shopper
- Appadvice
- Appsfire
- Mobitog

Reading
- iBooks
- Kindle
- Goodread
- Economist

Shopping
- Amazon
- eBay
- Sainsbury

Travel
- Tripadvisor
- Skyscanner
- Tube Map
- thetrainline
- TripIt

Reference
- Merriam Webster Dictionary
- American Heritage Dictionary
- Wikipedia
- Wordbook
- Qi

Blogging
- Blogger
- Wordpress

Diary/Journal
- Momento
- Springpad

Games
- Words with Friends
- Chess with Friends
- Real Racing 2

Net Browsing
- Opera Mini Browser